


Episode 1

by Billsanddavid



Series: SDOACG Series 4 Re-Write [1]
Category: Broadchurch, Secret Diary of a Call Girl (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-22
Updated: 2016-01-22
Packaged: 2018-05-15 12:40:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5785678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Billsanddavid/pseuds/Billsanddavid
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>SDOACG re-write Ep1. </p><p>Hannah Baxters life is about to change... she has a new flatmate in her former Madames teenage daughter, a new boyfriend and one Detective Inspector Alec Hardy to contend with. How will she cope.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Episode 1

There's so much to tell you. Three weeks of sun and sex on a private island with a millionaire client. It looked good in the brochure. Not all it's cracked up to be. Still good to be home.

\---

Hannah huffed as she dropped her suitcase by the front door. Her own front door. She smiled at the thought, she'd come a long way since the days of her and Ben played spoiled little rich kids. She had always dreamed of owning her own London home and now that dream had become her reality. 

Hannah pushed the front door open and made her way through to the living room. The stark white walls made the large open plan room look even larger, even though it was packed full of moving boxes. The move had been chaotic, she hadn’t realized she had owned so much stuff until she began boxing it all up and the thought of having to unpack it was not something she even wanted to begin to consider. 

Hannah pulled her mobile phones from her handbag and checked them both. Belles had several missed calls and messages. No doubt her many clients missing her. Her personal phone had just one missed call lighting up the screen, Ben had tried calling again.

I'll call him back, she thought, I will. But for now she had to get ready for a new client. Liam, a QC. Hannah smiled at her reflection in the mirror wondering what this appointment, what this client, had in store for her. Of all the things she loved about her job, this was what she loved the most. The uncertainty, the mystery... It made her feel something she had never felt and no matter how many clients she had, the feeling never went away.

Hannah did one final check in the mirror and then flipped herself forward to tousle her hair, coming back up she caught the reflection of Belle in the mirror and grinned.

\---

"You think I should stick my cock in an ice bucket?!".

Admittedly it wasn't one of her best ideas. They joked about other ways of softening the very hard problem in front of them before Liam turned and said, "I've got something for you, an invitation. From Stephanie".

It turned out, as Liam had explained, that Stephanie had been pulled over by the police for speeding and upon searching her car they had found 40,000 pound, 3 fake passports and a 12 inch black dildo. There was definitely no talking her way out of that one and Stephanie had subsequently found herself imprisoned...and before she knew it, Hannah found herself on the way to visit her there.

While it was true that her and Stephanie never really did see eye to eye, Hannah thought she should at least take Stephanie up on her offer to visit, if for no other reason than to satisfy her curiosity on how she would be coping behind bars. Stephanie had lived a very luxurious life and Hannah couldn't imagine her sleeping in a single bed in a cell and wearing orange coveralls.

\---

"What did you expect - stripy pyjamas? Porridge? My weeping face pressed against the bars?" Stephanie laughed.

"So, what's it actually like in here?" Hannah found herself asking. Was she genuinely curious, she wasn’t sure.

"It's just like school. Bitches, bullies, everything in-between. All you really have to do is keep the prefects sweet." She smiled at a larger woman who walked past. "So, l'm sure Liam explained what happened?"

Hannah nodded and Stephanie spoke briefly about her innocence, but she knew that Stephanie clearing her conscious wasn't the reason she had been asked to see her.

"Listen, Belle l need you to take care of the business for a few days. It's getting tricky to run things from in here. There are only so many places you can hide your phone."

"Yeah, l, l'm not doing that, OK? Absolutely not. Sorry."

Stephanie had pushed to get Hannah to take over the business but she stood her ground. Finally they came to a mutual agreement. Hannah would collect the post. When Stephanie has suggested it she immediately agreed, if picking up post was all she was required to do to get Stephanie off her back about running the business there was no chance she would have ever said no. 

Hannah hailed a cab and found herself weaving through the streets of London towards Stephanie’s house. She was admiring the sights of the city that she never really got a chance to appreciate when she felt her phone vibrate in her lap. Catching her breath in her chest she turned it over and looked at the screen. She sighed in relief when she was it was her Dad and not Ben again, she silenced the call as the cab pulled into the drive of the rather large townhouse. 

Hannah thanked the driver and handed him a wad of notes, not bothering to check how much it was. When she exited the cab she noticed a slender, brunette girl standing by the mail box.

"Hi! You must be Belle." She said beaming from ear to ear. "God, you look exactly like my mum described."

"Sorry?" Hannah asked confused.

"Oh. l'm Poppy, Stephanie's daughter." She said matter of factly. "Thank you so, so much for agreeing to let me stay."

Hannah chuckled nervously, this was the last thing she needed.

\---

Hannah unlocked the door to her home and gestured for Poppy to go through. 

"God, it's lovely! l would so love to have somewhere like this,” Poppy beamed as she looked around the room. Hannah pushed some of the packing boxes out of the way with her foot. A lame attempt at trying to make the house more presentable. 

"So, where have you been living up till now?" Hannah asked, she wondered briefly about whether Poppy knew, about her, about her mother.

"Oh, well, that's the problem. When l dropped out of uni, l had to let my room go in halls, which was a nightmare. That's why l'm so grateful for you putting me up.  
l mean, just until my mum gets back. Actually, can l just use your bathroom? lt's just l haven't been in hours, and that's, like, really bad for your kidneys."

"Yeah, yeah, sure. It's just round there." Hannah pointed down and the hall and watched Poppy bound away.

Bloody Stephanie, she thought. This is so typical. Even behind bars she is calling the shots. Hannah rubbed her forehead, the way she always did when she was stressed. This was going to be a nightmare.

When Poppy returned she went about asking Hannah as many questions as possible. How did she meet her mother? Did she work for the same company? Was she a corporate head hunter too?

Hannah cut her off, the awkwardness of the situation becoming too much, "I'm just going to go and find you some bedding".

Hannah rushed down the hall toward the linen cupboard, she needed distance. She had barely reached the cupboard when she heard her phone ringing and Poppy yelling from the kitchen at her that it was Ben and something about whether she wanted it picked up. Hannah ran back down the hallway and into the kitchen. She snatched the phone from Poppy's hand and cancelled the call.

"Here, pillowcase" Hannah smiled handing it to Poppy. The girl looked back at her with mock thanks written across her face.

Hannah sighed, this was going to be harder than she thought.

\---

Hannah had shown Poppy to her room and then returned to the lounge room, she slouched down further into the new couch. It was the only surface which wasn’t covered in things she hadn’t yet unpacked. She looked around the house, thinking she should probably make a start, when she heard a knock at the door. 

Hannah ran to the door and quickly opened it. She was excited, this was her first real visitor. The smile immediately fell from her face when she saw Ben standing on the opposite side. 

"Hi,” she said quickly after a pause that was much too long.

"Oh! Fuck! Good to see you, too."

"Sorry, l wasn't expecting you." She was, she knew he would eventually come around. She just hoped it wouldn't be so soon.

"Yeah, l just thought l'd come and say hi, say thanks - all the postcards, emails. Overwhelming." He said sarcastically.

"It was a tropical island, Ben."

"What about since you've been back? Or have you been too busy with the whole head-in-the-sand hiding thing?"

"Are you just gonna stand on my doorstep and insult me?"

"I could come in and do it." He suggested. Hannah paused and then opened the door. Ben walked through in to the living room and looked around. “Wow. Moving up in the world, Han?"

She panicked, this was more awkward than she had anticipated. "Did l, erm Did l tell you l went snorkelling? lt's amazing. l actually got to swim with turtles."

"Turtles?" He feigned an interest.

"Yeah."

"Turtles are good."

"Mm-hm."

"Mm-hm" he copied.

There was another long and awkward pause before Hannah felt like she needed to fill the silence. "And the rays, they were mental. You can actually..."

He cut her off. "Han, as much as l'm fascinated by the marine life of the Maldives..."

"Mauritius." She cut him off.

"Whatever. It's not really why l came."

"Well, do you want...Do you want a drink?"

"No."

"But l've got beer." She joked trying to lighten the mood.

"Hannah. Stop. l know you regret ever admitting to the possibility that we might be together. l know that. l even know that right now you're probably planning to turn me down. You're just wondering how to say it. And that's the point, Han. l know you better than you know yourself."

Frustrated he grabbed a marker from her kitchen and walked over to the sparse white wall in the lounge room. He popped the cap off and drew one vertical line and then a horizontal line.

"Ben, what are you doing?!" Hannah yelled. 

"Well, you can't even talk about it, about us. So, l'm gonna do a simple graphic. Reasons for and against."

"No. Stop doing that!"

"Why? Upset you, does it? Yeah, might have to face up to something for once in your life, make a decision?"

"You know what, you should go." Hannah couldn't believe what he had just done. She thought at least she could rely on him to be adult about their situation.

"Really? Why?"

"Because l don't want you here, fucking up my house!" She heard the words fall from her lips before she had even had a chance to consider them.

"Oh, that's right. We mustn't make a mess, must we? Mustn't feel anything. You know what? You're right. l don't want to rush you. l'll wait." And with that he stormed out slamming the door behind him.

Hannah scrubbed her hands through her hair and retreated to the kitchen. Not again. She couldn't handle one more thing being thrown at her today. She had wanted to come home, for things to be normal. Back to the way they used to be when they were mates. Back when they got on, when they could have a laugh and not everything was serious. 

Hannah was disrupted from her thoughts by a phone ringing. She realised it was Belles and quickly picked it up, recognizing the voice on the other end as Liam. The QC. He needed to see her right away. Professional reasons, not personal.

\---

The trip to Liam’s office has been eventful, just as the first half of the day had been. Liam had told her that Stephanie’s phone had been confiscated and that she was no longer able to run the business from jail. He handed over the documentation to Hannah, much to her dismay. She had said no to Stephanie, insisted that she couldn’t run the business and that she didn’t want to run the business. Yet somehow she had still managed to be lumbered with it. 

Still, at least she managed to turn the meeting into something productive. She had finally found a solution to Liam’s ‘problem’. 

Hannah had always prided herself on being able to recognize what her clients liked, what they craved and then using what turned them on to give them to best experience she could. Liam was no exception. 

When Hannah left his office she hoped she would see him again. She would never say it out loud, but she enjoyed it just as much as the clients.

\---

It was late by the time Hannah arrived home. She noticed by the dishes scattered around the kitchen that Poppy had made dinner. She sighed. So much for her sanctuary, so much for the place she could retreat to for peace.

She trod up the stairs and collapsed onto her bed. It was new, a treat for herself and for her new place. A place for her and her only, as there would be no more home visits from clients. Thousand dollar Egyptian cotton sheets lined the mattress, she rubbed her arms backwards and forwards along them feeling the velvety softness under her fingertips. Her moment of peace, her first moment of peace all day, was disrupted when her mobile rang. She shuffled through her sheets until she found it... Hannah's not Belles. It was her Dad.

"Hiya Dad" she said.

"Hey princess" he beamed down the phone. She had always been his little girl and even though she was now well in to her 20s she still was. "I have a favour to ask".

"Okay" she said slowly, questioningly.

"Nothing too demanding of you don't worry." He chucked. "Do you remember Alec?".

Hannah considered for a moment before answering, "Vaguely".

"Son of a friend of ours. Used to visit them when you were younger" he said, as if she should know. "Well he's a DI now, just been relocated to London but the flat they've arranged for him isn't quite ready. We've suggested he could stay with you for a bit. Big old empty house you've got now and all."

Hannah sighed. A copper, living under her roof. How was she going to manage that? Still she had never said no to her Dad. "Yeah course Dad, anything for you".

"Great. I will let him know. Expect him in the next few days though. Love you princess."

"You too Dad" she hung up.

Deciding she needed to relax Hannah made her way to the bathroom and ran the tub. She was caressing the forming bubbles when she looked out the window and saw Ben standing in her back yard.

\---

"Life is messy, Han." He said when he saw her approaching. She was stunning. Her beige nightgown floating in the evening breeze and the moonlight casting shadows across her dewy skin. "What's the alternative? You hide away in your perfect house, all alone?"

"l'm just scared." She offered.

"l know, Hannah."

"You don't. You know, you have you have other people, you have friends and family who know you. They know everything about you. And l just have you."

"And you'll still have me." He said, as if it was as simple as that.

"Not if l fuck it up, l won't. And l always do. You know, my job..."

"Your job is just your job, Hannah." He pleaded. "It's not you. l can handle it."

"If l lose you, Ben, l'll have nobody."

"You will not lose me." He said. She had never heard him sound so sure of anything.

"But l might."

"Hannah, there are thousands of reasons why we shouldn't try. There are thousands more why we should." He walked over and wrapped her in a hug. She hugged him back and for the first time, in a long time, she felt at ease. She grabbed him by the hand and led him inside the house. 

\---

They had spent the last few hours in bed, talking. Catching up on all the things in each other’s lives that they had missed recently. His work, her trip. She finished her story about the rays and he told her about his adventures over the Summer with Gloria and Byron. They laughed together and she thought it felt right. Felt like it should be. 

She had turned down his offer for sex when he brought it up. I don't want to rush it, she had told him. He had been understanding. He always was.

He was snoring softly beside her now, but Hannah couldn't shake the niggling feeling at the back of her mind. How was she supposed to be a girlfriend, a baby sitter and a housemate to a DI on top of being a prostitute and a temporary Madame?


End file.
